A Reason To Stay
by Awesomegreentie
Summary: John and Anna have been friends for years but suddenly John dreams of something more.


**A/N Just a one shot based on a prompt from Tumblr that said, "Your OTP are best friends and then one of them has a sexy dream about the other and has a hard time acting normally around them" or something to that effect. Here's what I came up with. Enjoy.**

**I don't own yadda… yadda… yadda.**

John entered his loft and looked around proudly. It had been a long and sometimes discouraging 18 months, but it was finally finished. And it was beautiful, if he did say so himself. It was almost exactly the way he had imagined it would be all those long months ago when the plans had first taken shape on the drawing board in his office at Crawley and Associates. John had worked as an architect at Robert's firm ever since getting his license a good seventeen years ago, but in all that time he had never before designed something for himself.

This was the home he had always wanted, even if it currently had no more furniture than a mattress on the floor and a few old folding chairs and table. But Anna was coming tomorrow morning with all her portfolio pictures and ideas and would soon set the place to rights. She was the best interior designer at the firm and had been ever since she arrived ten years ago, fresh out of uni.

In those ten years she and John almost always seemed to end up working together on the same projects. Because of their work they were often in meetings together or ended up working late. They had shared many a lunch and dinner and had become close friends. She had seen him through his divorce with Vera and he had supported her during her relationship with that loser bloke, what was his name? Green? John knew when it came to decorating his new home there was no one else he would turn to for advice.

He looked wistfully into the empty refrigerator and poured himself a glass of orange juice. He was probably too tired to eat anyway, which was just as well as there was no real food in sight. He had worked very late tonight in order to take the whole day off tomorrow to work with Anna. He downed his juice and made his way to the bedroom. He was asleep as soon as he flopped down on the mattress, not even bothering to strip off his clothes.

_He heard a knock on the door and went to answer it. There stood Anna looking as beautiful as always in a professional blouse and skirt. Her high heels made her legs look a mile long even though she was several inches shorter than John._

"_Hello, handsome," she uttered in a voice just a little too sexy to be professional._

"_Hello," John answered, "Come in. I've been looking forward to seeing you."_

"_Mmm, and I've been looking forward to seeing you. It should be fun," she said as she entered the loft and stood much too close to him. She ran one of her fingers ever so slowly down his torso and the motion set fire to his blood. "I've got some lovely items to show you. Should we get right to it? This should be fun."_

"_Um sure," John managed to speak around the lump that had formed in his throat._

"_Right this way," Anna smiled as she took his hand and led him to the couch. When they got there she placed her hands on both his shoulders and pushed him to a sitting position. Then she straddled him and began to run her fingers through his hair. _

"_Do you want to see what I've brought for you?" she whispered softly into his ear._

"_Yes, yes I do." Before he knew what was happening his hands were on her hips pulling her more tightly into his body._

_She continued to nibble on his ear, his neck, his jawline as she slowly unbuttoned her blouse to reveal her lovely breasts to him. He couldn't resist, his hands left her hips and began to caress her through the silky fabric of her bra. He made his way to her back and unhooked it while she chuckled softly._

"_My god you're beautiful, Anna," he whispered as she gasped at his touch. She quickly discarded the garment leaning more closely into him. and he didn't hesitate to take the opportunity to kiss her chest and take each nipple into his mouth in turn. His hands wandered to her back again and he slowly unzipped her skirt as she fondled him through his pants._

John's alarm woke him from his dream and he realized he was covered in sweat. It was just as well he thought… he needed a cold shower anyway. What the hell had that been? He had never had a dream like that before. Well, not about Anna anyway. And she was due to be here in an hour. What the hell was he thinking?

John stripped off his clothes from the night before and made his way to the bathroom. He stepped into the shower and stood under the cool water much longer than he usually would. He had to get himself under control or he would never be able to face her. He left the shower and wrapped himself in a towel. Looking at his reflection in the mirror, he ran his hand over his face, which was covered with stubble. He didn't know why, but he decided not to shave, hoping it would make him as unappealing as possible.

He dressed quickly and rushed out to the small pastry shop down the street, buying coffee and little breakfast items for himself and Anna. He had only been back in his loft a few minutes when he heard a knock at the door and was suddenly flooded with nervousness. He knew it was ridiculous. There was no way Anna could know what he had dreamt last night but he could barely make eye contact as he opened the door.

"Hello, handsome," she uttered in a completely normal tone of voice.

"Hello," John answered, awkwardly, "Come in. I've… um... been looking forward to seeing you." Damn, why had he said that last part?

"Are you sure you're alright, John? You look a little flushed."

"Huh?" John said, looking at his feet, "Yes, I'm fine. I've got breakfast. If you're hungry. Or not. Whatever."

He took a deep breath and tried to gain control over himself. When he finally looked up he couldn't help but notice that Anna did indeed look gorgeous this morning. She had on a white, highly starched blouse and a pair of very form fitting jeans. How had he never noticed what a perfect figure she had, and why was he noticing it now? She had on a pair of mid-height heels and her legs...wait, oh god no. Not heels. John made his way quickly to the kitchen and took an inordinate amount of time arranging the breakfast things on a tray.

He returned to the other room and held out a cup. Anna took a sip of the coffee John offered her and said, "Mmm, you know just the way I like it." She smiled up at him and continued, "I've really been looking forward to working with you today. It should be fun. I've got some lovely items to show you. Should we get right to it?" John knew he must be imagining it, but wasn't this exactly the way his dream had started out? He suddenly felt very hot and walked over to the sliding door which led to the balcony, opening it a few inches and breathing in the fresh air.

"John?" Anna asked, confused, "what are you doing?"

"Oh," he didn't turn around but waved wildly at the cityscape before him, "have you seen the view? It's really spectacular."

Anna crossed the room to join him, "Yes, it's lovely. Just as lovely as it's been the other fifty times I've been here. What's gotten into you today? You're acting very strangely." She patted his chest as she said it and John felt waves of electricity course through his body. Could this really be happening? He was attracted to Anna. He had always said any man would be lucky to be with a woman like her: funny, creative, smart, beautiful. But suddenly, he wanted that man to be him.

He tried to make small talk, "You should see it at night sometime." As the words left his mouth he tried to grab them back. All he could do was close his eyes and hope it sounded more innocent to Anna than it sounded to him.

"I'm sure I will," she answered quietly.

What did she mean by that? Did she mean that she wanted to see it at night? Or that of course she would see it at night, they were friends and he was bound to have a house warming or something, eventually. He was losing his mind and he had to get control of himself before this whole thing got completely out of hand.

"Anna, would you excuse me for a moment? I've just got to go to the 'gents'. I'll be right back."

"Of course," she said sweetly, "I'll just set up the things I've brought to show you. They're really lovely."

"Yes, I'm sure they are." John meant it as a regular statement but as he said it his mind flashed on the Anna he had dreamt of last night. He left the room quickly and made his way into the bathroom in his own room, avoiding the one in the hall.

He splashed water on his face and gave himself a strong lecture. He told himself that it was fine if he was developing feelings for Anna. She was single, he was single, they got on well. There was nothing wrong in it per se. But the way he was acting was completely ridiculous. He had to get ahold of himself or Anna would think he was a lunatic. She wouldn't want to even be his colleague anymore much less his friend, or potentially more. He took several deep breaths and ran his hands through his hair a few times. Finally, he felt ready to go and face her again.

"Ah, there you are," she smiled brightly at him from the table where she had set out her open portfolio, "Are you feeling better? You didn't look well before."

"Yes, I'm much better now, thanks," he smiled back and was happy to find it was a much more natural smile, "I'm sorry about that. I didn't sleep very well last night."

"Excited about today?"

"Something like that, yes," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. He took one more deep breath and sat next to her, grabbing some of the pictures from her portfolio, "So Miss Smith, what do we have here?"

They worked for several hours and with each passing moment John felt more at ease. He felt a sense of relief, having been worried that the awakening of these feelings would continue to put a strain on their friendship. That was the last thing he wanted. He really did enjoy his time with Anna both inside and outside of work and he didn't want anything to damage that.

He loved most of the ideas she had for the loft and the few times he disagreed with her choices she took it cheerfully, listening to what he wanted and quickly coming up with new options. John was reminded that she really was fantastic at her job. When John commented on this fact, she replied that it was much easier as the two of them knew each other so well. He might be wrong, but he thought he saw her blush slightly as she said it.

John was getting increasingly excited about his home and by the time he looked at his watch it was already one o'clock. He insisted on taking Anna to lunch and was extremely happy to be walking down the street with this lovely woman at his side. She slipped her arm in his as they walked and his heart leaped in his chest, but in a much more natural way than it had in the morning. He was getting used to the idea that he did actually fancy Anna as more than a friend and that perhaps his dream was his subconscious' way of cluing him into that fact.

They enjoyed their lunch chit chatting about John's loft, the people at work and the various members of the Crawley family. John felt lost and elated each time Anna smiled or laughed and he found himself trying to make it happen more and more often. They had always had fun together and today was no different. They finally made their way back to John's and got straight back to work.

As the afternoon wore on Anna noticed the time and said, "Oh my gosh, I've got to run. It's nearly five."

John didn't want her to go and felt brave enough to do something about it, "Must you? I don't have many supplies just yet, but we could pop down to the market and get something. I'd love to cook you dinner."

"That sounds lovely, John but I can't tonight," she looked at the ground and put a strand of hair behind her ear as she continued quietly, "I'm afraid I have a date."

John found her use of the word 'afraid' to be encouraging and he said, "Oh, I see. I didn't realize you had been seeing anyone."

Anna rushed to answer, "Oh, I haven't. This is someone new Mary fixed me up with."

"Mmmm," John took a step closer to her, "I don't think you should go. I think you should stay and have dinner with me." He smiled and his eyes crinkled at the edges.

"I should?" Anna stepped closer to John as well, "Why do you say that?"

"Well, because he's probably all wrong for you."

"What?" she giggled, "You haven't even met him. _**I **_haven't even met him. How could you possibly know he was all wrong for me?"

John had no idea what he was doing, but he knew with every fiber of his being that he didn't want her to leave.

"I just don't think he's the right one is all. So you shouldn't go. You should stay and have dinner with me. If you haven't met him yet then it won't be that hard to cancel." He took one more step.

The atmosphere in the room was changing rapidly and both Anna and John could feel it.

"And what reason could I possibly give for standing him up?"

John shook his head, "I don't know, tell him you're ill."

"But I'm not."

"Tell him you have to work late."

"But I don't."

"I know, tell him you're having dinner with a client. That's almost true." John took another step, happy that Anna seemed to be fine with the fact that there was hardly any room between them at all now.

She looked at him and a little smile he had never seen before crossed her lips. She answered softly, "Oh, I think I'd need a better reason than that, John."

"You want a reason to stay?" he almost begged.

"Yes."

"How about this?" He closed the final distance between them and placed his hand on her hip, pulling her toward him, "Please don't go. I very much want you to stay."

And with that he kissed her. At first he just placed his partially parted lips on hers, but when she didn't move away he ran his tongue across her bottom lip, gratified when he heard her moan softly. He deepened the kiss and moaned himself when he felt her tongue meet his own.

He broke from her and whispered softly, "Is that a good enough reason to stay?"

"I think it is Mr. Bates," she said with a smile, "but you better kiss me again, just to be sure."


End file.
